1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sanitary articles that are used for the protection from cross-contamination of germs at salad bars and buffets. More particularly, the present invention the relates to sanitary articles whereby various kitchen and buffet utensils can be easily used and manipulated with the sanitary article.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 137 CFR 1.98.
During the past twenty years. Americans have seen the increase of both spouses entering the workforce. This has resulted in an increase in spendable income for the family. This increase in income permits the family to enjoy such luxuries as two cars, color television and luxurious vacations. Also, Americans, in general, are spending more time away from home for both Work and pleasure. As a result, more people are eating their meals in restaurants.
Buffets are one of the most popular forms of restaurants. Buffets typically include many different types of appetizers, salads, entrees and desserts placed in food trays along a buffet table.
Spoons, forms, and tongs are generally provided with each buffet dish. The customer or patron uses the utensils to remove as much food as he or she desires from the buffet dish onto their plates and then places the utensils back into the buffet dish. The patron continues this process throughout the buffet table, and then goes to his or her seat to eat the food using food utensils provided by the restaurant.
Sanitation cross-contamination has always been a concern of buffet restaurant owners, as well as the restaurant customers. Restaurant owners are well aware of the economical and devastating effect that results from an outbreak of food poisoning in a restaurant.
Great progress has been made in mandating the supervision of food preparation and employee's personal hygiene within the restaurant industry in order to safeguard the future of the dining-out segment of the food service industry. However, this is not good enough, since customer cross-contamination is also possible in the buffet environment by various customers using the same buffet food utensils. It is known that certain pathogens like salmonella, streptococcal, E. Coli and Staph congregate on human bands and may be passed among customers using the same utensils. Also, Hepatitis A may likewise be passed among customers in the same manner. Moreover, the bacteria and virus also can contact the food, thereby contaminating the food.
To overcome this cross-contamination problem, it has been proposed to issue disposable gloves to buffet customers. However, the use of such gloves has been rejected for several reasons, namely: (1) the patrons resentment of the inference that they have unclean hands; (2) the unwillingness of the patron to wear disposable gloves; (3) the inconvenience of putting on and removing the gloves while holding a plate of food, plus the awkward appearance of everyone wearing gloves; and (4) the gloves are easily contaminated by touching other items, thereby giving the wearer a false sense of security.
It has also been suggested that the patron be issued his or her own utensils for use only with the buffet dishes. However, this would require an inordinate number of serving, utensils and is, therefore, not practical.
In the past, various patents have issued relating to such sanitary articles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,614, issued on Dec. 23, 1997 to J. P. Garneau, shows an attachable and removable handle for food serving utensils. The utensil has a first portion and a handle. The first portion includes a utensil portion. The handle is removably attached to end of the shank of the utensil portion. A spring-loaded clamp is provided with the handle to coact with the shank so as to engage the shank with the handle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,099, issued on Sep. 15, 1998 to D. Grinberg, discloses a disposable mitt that has a mitt body formed of front and back layers of plastic sealed around the periphery thereof so as to form a closed end and an open end and forming a thumb portion and one or more finger portions. A detachable section extends from the back layer adjacent the open end of the mitt body and has a line of weakness, such as a perforation, suitable for separation of the detachable portion from the mitt body. The detachable portion also includes means to mount the mitt assembly on a support structure
U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,083, issued on Nov. 2, 1999 to R. E. Henderson, shows a method and apparatus for providing a sanitary barrier for a users hand. In particular, this includes the steps of providing a supply of segments of polymeric film on an elongated roll. Each segment has a surface that enables the segment to adhere to a users hand when the user places his or her hand against the surface. The dispenser can provide a backing place for holding the free end of the roll so that when the user applied pressure to the free end of the roll at the segment to be dispensed, the user's hand presses against the film segment and the underlying backing plate.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,298,491, issued on Oct. 9, 2001 to Blustin et al, provides a disposable glove that has a first and a second juxtaposed-shaped films of heat resistant plastic material. The films are sealed together around their peripheries. These are positioned so as to accommodate the insertion and withdrawal of a hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,346, issued on Jul. 9, 1996 to W. B. Robinson, discloses a disposable prophylatic barrier. The barrier is of a planar transparent plastic sheet having a low-tack pressure-sensitive adhesive over a portion of a surface thereof. The sheet is bulk-dispensed from a roll.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/0131393, published on Jul. 17, 2003 to E. J. Votolato, describes a utensil for eliminating bare hand handling of sensitive material. The utensil includes a pair of pockets for receiving a user's hand and is formed of a flexible material. Each of the pockets has an open end, a closed end and a pair of sides. One side of each pocket is flat and arranged in opposition to the other so as to form opposing sides. A hinge joins together the pair of pockets at the opposing sides and at the open ends thereof. The hinge biases the pockets in a closed position such that the pair of pockets are separable by the user for gripping the sensitive material with the opposing sides at the closed ends of the pockets.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2007/0210596, published on Sep. 13, 2007 to Stewart et al, teaches finger tongs. These finger tongs include a front tong element flexibly binged to a rear tong element to form a seamless one piece structure. Additional elements include scooping tips, different sized and shaped gripping and grasping elements, and heat-shrink hand protectors. These are connected to each other and to a hinge point surrounded by a hand protection area.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a disposable utensil cup that minimizes the transfer of germs during the handling of serving utensils.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a disposable utensil cup that easily allows the users to manipulate the utensils.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a disposable utensil cup which can be easily applied to the fingers of the users.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a sanitary article that is disposable following use.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a disposable utensil cup that is easy to use, easy to manufacture and relatively inexpensive.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims.